Background: Depressive disorders are the second-leading cause of global disability, and an area of increasing focus in international health efforts. We describe a community health worker (CHW) program rolled out in a stepped-wedge design during the course of routine patient care to 74 patients with depression in 4 communities in rural Mexico. Methods: We used random effects models to calculate the change in Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scores, an internationally validated measure of depression, before and after the CHW program was introduced. As a secondary outcome, we also examined the change pre- and post-intervention in the proportion of patients who had a mean of at least one visit per month for depression follow-up, in accordance with clinic visit guidelines. Results: In multivariate mixed-effects regression, the introduction of the CHW program was associated with a 2.1-point decrease in PHQ-9 score (95% CI: -3.7 to -0.50) followed by a decrease in PHQ-9 score of 0.19 points per month (95% CI: -0.41 to 0.02), beyond standard care. There was strong evidence that patients were far more likely to attend a mean of at least one visit per month (adjusted OR = 8.5, 95% CI: 7.2 to 9.7) after the intervention was introduced in a community. Conclusions: Our results suggest an association between the introduction of a CHW program and improved depression outcomes and appointment adherence. Our findings are limited by missing data. Future research is necessary to develop evidence-based mental health interventions implementable in low-resource settings.
